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Method

Heat oven to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3. Butter, double-line and wrap the sides of the 30cm deep-round cake tin as before. Put the butter and chocolate into a medium saucepan, then stir over a low heat until melted and smooth. Stir in the coffee and vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into the biggest bowl you have. Add the sugar, breaking down any lumps with your fingertips if necessary. Beat the eggs and soured cream together in a jug or bowl and pour into the flour mix. Pour in the melted chocolate mix as well, then stir with a wooden spoon until you have a thick, even chocolaty batter.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 2½ hrs – don’t open the oven door before 2 hrs is up, as this will cause the cake to sink. Once cooked, leave in the tin to cool completely. The unfilled cake will keep for up to four days, wrapped as before, or
frozen for a month.

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Comments, questions and tips

Comments

I have cooked this cake for my friend & is delicious. I'd like to make the cake again, with the addition of a 20cm & 10cm cake too. Please could you let me know the quantities & timings for a 10cm & 20cm cake please?

Made this for a base for a three tier wedding cake and my word was it a success. I had to transport it 150 miles so made it a couple of days before and even after the day it was very moist and fresh, I pro rata'd the measurements to fit a smaller tin. If you are doing a showcase cake I would highy recommend this recipe.

Made this cake for husband's 50th birthday cake, went down a storm! Best chocolate cake I've ever made. I weighed the eggs (out of their shells) as per the tips, used a double foil collar and it rose to 3". Brilliant.

Please note all ovens are different - I have estimated from experience the raising agents as they were difficult to subdivide into a smaller recipe. I line my tins bottom and side with greaseproof paper. I also use "bake even" bands every time. These help eliminate doming of the cake and give an even bake. Wilton make them but you can get other makes also from Amazon. Soak them in water and wrap around the tin. They are adjustable also up to 10" cake size. I do use bands for up to 16" cakes also.
All the best.

I have made this Rich chocolate cake for 3 wedding cakes in the past few months, Never had anything but good comments. I have to say not being able to open the door for 2 hours is nerve racking, But whatever you do DONT !. My husband loves all the practice runs ... I have never frozen one, but I think I will give it ago, as it may take away a bit of stress to know you have a spare one, if needed .

I made this once but halved the recipe to test it out for a wedding cake I'm going to make in January 2014. It tasted pretty good but I do wonder if it'll have a little more character if I used the soured cream as opposed to normal cream. Has anyone made this without the soured cream and if so what did you use? I can't seem to get it where I live.

The best chocolate cake recipe EVER! Making with real chocolate makes it so delicious and it has a great stickiness to it without being heavy or stodgy. Made this for my sister's wedding cake and had so many postive comments. Will definitely be using it again.

I'd strongly advise not leaving out the coffee... You don't taste the coffee flavour at all but it definitely enhances the chocolatiness.

i love this cake really easy and i weighed the eggs. I used the recipe above to fill all 3 tins, which i will repeat to make layer two of each size using square tins with biggest being 30cm. The are perfectly even, well risen and baked for approx 90 mins. I also omitted coffee, used standard caster sugar and used self raising flour. Worked a treat, hopefully a very happy bridey on sat, this is the biggest cake i've ever made and its beautifully moist

I'm making this cake for my daughter's wedding. I did a trial run which burned. Then I did a second attempt which burned and dropped in the middle. (I opened the door after 2 hours.)
I then looked at the recipe closely and it says Gas Mark 4/160C. I checked this and found that Gas Mark 4 is actually 180C, so I had been baking my cake in an oven which was too hot!
On my third attempt I set my oven (gas Rayburn) at Gas Mark 2 and didn't peep at the cake until the full 2.5 hours was up.
Result - perfectly risen cake! I still have to layer it so I don't know what the inside is like yet!

We persisted with trying to get this right as it goes down so well, focussing on not overfilling the baking tins. My daughter made it for a birthday cake in 2 x 8" (20cm) square tins using half the mix. We checked after 1.5 hours and 'listened' to them, returning them for 10 minutes until they stopped 'singing'. They turned out perfectly, with no sinking. She split each cake in half and used 3 layers for the cake and the 4th layer for us to eat!
I have used an oven thermometer and discovered that my oven is too cool at lower temperatures so have heated it to 160 and turned it downto 150 when the cake goes in.

I made this cake today as a trial for my son's wedding. I scaled down the ingredients to fit a 20 cm tin as opposed to a 30cm tin. I thought that i should also scale down the time in the oven, but although the cake appeared cooked, it sank and was uncooked in the centre. Any ideas?

Fab cake to make, very easy and straightforward, and yes, you will need a big bowl. I just used these quantities for a 8", 7" and 6" deep tins and now have 3 perfectly proportioned cakes all just under 4" deep; all baked together for 1hour 40 mins at fan oven temp 140c. Really pleased, thank you!

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